


A Promise Kept

by ekrolo2



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Female Uchiha Sasuke, Pre-Time Skip, Regret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:22:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28053123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ekrolo2/pseuds/ekrolo2
Summary: The Valley of the End was supposed to be an end for her, the life in Konoha. Of her bond with everyone there. And of Naruto. A new beginning, towards real unfathomable power. Satsuki should have known he'd find some way to mess it all up for her... Or did he?
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 4
Kudos: 56





	1. Chapter 1

"Rain..." Kakashi thought as he and Pakkun continued their relentless leaping from tree to tree. A rush of panic went through the jonin's mind as the tiny, occasional droplets soon became a thunderstorm beating down on them. Any tracker with some common sense knew what it meant, and it was something Kakashi absolutely couldn't afford. Not know, not with the two of them at stake.

"Their scent, do you still have it?"

"It's alright!" Pakkun shouted back. "I still have it... They're here!"

Allowing himself to hope, Kakashi pushed himself onward until the seemingly neverending forests of the Fire Country gave way to that place. The site of one of the greatest battles in all of shinobi history, the Valley of the End. With the deft practice of decades, ninja and animal both leaped from the final tree trunks and, moments later, descended to the bottommost level of the valley, at the feet of Hashirama Senju. As the downpour continued, Kakashi and Pakkun both looked around frantically until they saw them.

Naruto and Satsuki, floating in the water right next to one another, their forehead protectors cracked, and their eyes closed. When he saw the fist-sized hole through Naruto's right ribcage, Kakashi felt a horrible, momentary flash of his own past then set it aside. He had to get to his students first, not wallow in memories of his own misery. The instant he placed them on solid ground, he went about checking their pulses.

"Well...?" Pakkun asked as Kakashi pressed his fingers against their necks. He checked once, twice, and then at least twice more, until he was satisfied. Until the cold knife of fear, he was usually so good at ignoring, was finally pulled out of his chest. Letting out a single, pained breath, Kakashi felt the weight of the world leave his shoulders. He couldn't help but smile like an idiot under his mask at his trusted tracker dog.

"...They're alive..."

Sitting down next to Satsuki, Pakkun smiled too, and the old grouch even let out a short laugh. It was then, once his own fears and worries were put to rest, that Kakashi noticed they weren't the only ones doing it. Despite looking tired, beaten, and bloodied, Naruto smiled in his sleep too. Satsuki wasn't, but she looked... Not peaceful, but more at ease than he'd ever seen her before.

"It's amazing, don't you think?" Pakkun said, lifting his head toward the statues towering over them. "Those two duking it out here of all places? Just like Madara and the First Hokage?"

"The irony didn't escape me," Kakashi admitted, gazing up at the two men who built Konoha. Those who began as enemies became comrades and then enemies once more, warriors whose battle-scarred and created the very place where they all were. A fight from which only one of them walked away and Kakashi was glad that part of history, at least, didn't repeat itself. He looked back to his students, feeling another surge of relief at Satsuki's presence before looking at Naruto.

 _You always were one to pull off the impossible,_ Kakashi admitted with no small amount of pride directed at the former dead last. _You have no idea how lucky you were here today, Naruto. Precious few of us save a comrade as you have..._

* * *

It was almost over.

The mission they'd set out on was on the verge of success or complete failure. Everything the whole team had done up until this point was riding on what happened next. Naruto's promise to Sakura was on the line, and so was the life of the first person with who he'd ever felt a connection. Before even Iruka-sensei. Satsuki watched him with that Sharingan of hers, eyes that scared and left him speechless a million times. She'd saved his life with those eyes in the Land of Waves. Now, she was going to use them to kill him. Sever the bond.

 _Like hell..._ Naruto thought, watching as she knelt in the crater, working through the Chidori's hand signs. Sure enough, it appeared, and Orochimaru twisted even it with his damn curse mark. The lightning bent in bizarre ways, turning black around her left hand. There was absolutely no hesitation in her face. It would've hurt less if she was actually as cold as she wanted to seem. Naruto knew better. The fact Satsuki was turning herself into a monster was worse than a knife in the chest. He couldn't stomach it anymore.

But she was right about one thing, words weren't going to change anything.

 _Listen up,_ Naruto growled at the monster inside him, raising his hand for a Rasengan he shouldn't have been able to make. _I'm not losing here, got it?! You help me win this thing already, or I'm gonna go in there and kick your ass myself!"_

" **I have no intention of dying from your incompetence, brat,** " The fox surprised him by answering, sounding even more pissed off than Naruto himself felt for some reason. _"_ **Certainly not to a damned Uchiha..."**

If Naruto didn't feel like his whole world was about to crumble, he might've laughed at the two of them agreeing on something. In the palm of his only useful arm, Naruto idly felt the accumulation of chakra in his palm. It spun and formed the Rasengan for him perfectly with a mind of its own. Naruto could feel the weight of all the extra power put into it. If Satsuki cared or was scared, she didn't show it, playing it cool as usual. The act pissed him off even more.

_How, how can someone like you... Be such a dumbass?!_

Blasting off from the statue, Naruto pulled his arm back as Satsuki did the same, soaring through the air with those freakish arms sticking out of her. Neither one of them said anything as the Chidori and Rasengan smashed into one another. Neither one of them so much as flinched as their own attacks ballooned around them, encasing them inside an orb of chakra so thick it was impossible to even breathe. To even see from the glow, at least, for one of them.

As fast as lightning, Satsuki's fist smashed into Naruto's chest, the sudden jolt of pain-causing his whole body to freeze up. His arm hovered just above her forehead protector. All he had to do was scratch it, and he would prove her wrong. She wasn't that far above him. The thought was almost enough to make him feel better about the fact he was definitely about to lose. Almost. But as the blood rushed through his throat and tears in his eyes, feeling more miserable in that instant than he had in months, Naruto wanted to punch himself.

All his big talk about his ninja way, about never giving up, and this is what it amounted to? Letting everything the whole team had worked so hard to go to crap? To let down Kakashi-sensei and Sakura? To let that slimy, murdering creep Orochimaru take Satsuki? The person who pissed him off and who he admired like no one else? The only girl he'd ever...

_No... No!... This ain't over yet!_

* * *

Satsuki Uchiha thought her completed Sharingan and curse mark had secured her victory. It allowed her to peer past the blinding flash of light from their Jutsu smashing into one another and score a devastating hit on Naruto. She could feel the blow tear right past the cloak of chakra, muscles burying themselves inside his torso. With detail, Satsuki observed Naruto's whole body freeze then twist in response to the hit. Any second now, blood would come rushing out of his mouth, and his only functioning arm would completely miss its mark.

That wasn't what let her know it was over. It was Naruto's face. For a single, satisfying instant, Satsuki saw the resignation there, an acceptance of defeat. She watched tears form in the corners of his eyes, and his face changed from furious to pained to finally desperate. He looked even more miserable than when she'd run him through earlier. As the image burned itself into her memory with the Sharingan's copy abilities.

 _Finally,_ She smiled predatorily. _The loser knows I've won._

And with that victory would come finality and even more power. Satsuki could practically taste it already, the Mangekyo Sharingan. That hidden strength of the Uchiha clan, acquired only by those who had the will to take it for themselves. With Naruto's death, those eyes would be hers, and every single troublesome bond with Konoha would be severed forever. Nothing would hold her back anymore.

 _Just you wait, brother,_ Satsuki's smile widened as she looked past Naruto to something beyond, a dream of the future soon to become a reality. Her big brother, frothing at the mouth at her feet as the genjutsu worked its magic. _Next time we meet, it'll be your mind getting ripped to pieces, you worthless bastard-_

Before she could savor it longer, Satsuki's attention was brought back to the present. There was a change in Naruto's face, slow and hypnotic. The expression stayed, of bottomless regret and sorrow, of absolute unfathomable misery. The same pitiful look he'd sent her way before she impaled him. Except it wasn't on Naruto's face anymore, it was on... _His_. With a mesmerized look of horror and fascination, Satsuki found herself flung back years to the night of the massacre, being looked down upon by Itachi.

It was a position she'd herself a million times, in waking hours and horrible nightmares. No matter how much she tried, the overwhelming sense of helplessness crashed down on her. Leaving her that same, useless child, lying in the dirt, exhausted, at Itachi's mercy while he loomed over her.

 _Not this time,_ She snarled, grinding her teeth, a righteous fire burning in her chest. _You won't do that to me again, not when I'm almost... What...?!_

Satsuki had been mistaken. The vision of the past happening before her was almost the same. There was only one difference: Itachi was crying, looking at her with the same expression as Naruto.

 _What is this...?!_ She thought, as quiet as a mouse in her own head. _I-I've never..._

Itachi was many things to her throughout her life. Someone to admire, to despise, to surpass before and after the massacre. But one thing Satsuki could never fathom Itachi being... Was vulnerable, human. He looked less of a mass murderer and more of just a boy, barely older than she was now. Lost, miserable. It was... She had no words for it.

The image burned itself into her memory forever, thanks to her Sharingan. Except it didn't, Satsuki was keenly aware of a particular sensation within her own eyes. Small feelings within the Sharingan that let her know when something was being copied into her brain. This wasn't that one of those instances.

 _W-What does this..._ Suddenly, a hand snapped around her neck in a grip so tight her breathing was cut off immediately. The image of the weeping, remorseful Itachi faded and was replaced by a sobbing, snarling, and fanged Naruto. Staring at him, their faces inches apart, Satsuki stared as he changed again. Not the teenager with fangs and red eyes. But the small, sad little boy who from years ago come back to her as her own body felt smaller, lighter too. For a moment, Naruto smiled at her warmly, offering his hand in the gesture of reconciliation.

Satsuki looked at it, then him, and realized she'd gone back to that day too. Pretending to stare at the water, trying not to lock eyes with a loudmouth loser doing an even worse job of it than her. After everything that'd happened, past the anger boiling off of him and the resentment that should've been there was Naruto's warmth. For her, banishing the mess all-around them until they were just two kids again.

Satsuki stared, her heart thumping as loud as an exploding kunai. She wanted to swat his hand away, but her body didn't listen. Tentatively, she reached out to him for some unfathomable reason, completing the gesture. Naruto's eyes lit up, he gave her his biggest, toothiest grin. Satsuki stared at it, feeling the warmth wash over her even more potently. It was like being back in Konoha, just lying on the grass with the sun shining down. Eventually, hesitantly, she smiled back.

Then Naruto's head pulled back and, with all the force he had left, smashed his forehead against hers.

Satsuki didn't feel anything, not from her own body. Not the blinding pain that rushed from her brain, leaving her numb all over. She didn't perceive the receding of the curse mark as its power faded away from her. Or even the deactivation of her Sharingan. The only thing Satsuki Uchiha felt as she and Naruto both plummeted to the ground was what ran through that boy's head.

 _I...I care about you, you stupid bastard!_ Naruto practically shouted in her head. Feeling something for her, he wasn't able to articulate, but Satsuki knew quite well. She'd lost it a long time ago, and never for a second thought, she'd feel it again. Everything he'd done with her, for her, was painfully clear. Everything she would after this? Just the opposite. This was the last thought she had before the two of them fell onto the ground and into unconsciousness.

* * *

Kabuto observed from the doorway in complete silence as Lord Orochimaru went through one sequence of hand signs to the next. With each failure to perform a jutsu, the already present pit in his stomach widened. A cold sweat threatened to break out at any moment. Even with his master's back turned, Kabuto knew his rage was immeasurable and growing with each failure. Even with the physical damage of the Reaper Death Seal repaired, new flesh couldn't fix a literally carved spirit.

 _Perhaps he only needs time... Time to acclimate to this new body...?_ Kabuto tried to rationalize, and each repeat of the same thought rang all the more hollow. An empty little bit of hope to make himself feel better on the eve of reporting more ill news.

"Has he arrived yet, Kabuto?" Lord Orochimaru's voice hissed from the almost pitch-black room, illuminated by a sole candle on the table next to him. His words almost seemed to echo through Kabuto's very skull, turning his blood into ice. Even after all their time together and his many years of practice, he still wasn't able to fully steel himself in the Sannin's presence.

"... No, my lord," Kabuto knelt, bowing his head as Lord Orochimaru's hands fell at his sides, his posture rigid like a statue. "Thus far, our agents have reported no crossings from the Fire Country into our territory."

"Not even from the Sound Four?"

Kabuto ignored the bead of sweat running down his neck. "We've received no word from them either."

With an almost imperceptible motion, Lord Orochimaru's fingers curled. He could practically hear their muscles groan under the tension of the clench. His master made no other motions, but he didn't have to. Only an imbecile could miss the growing possibility or, more accurately certainty, of what transpired. Satsuki either returned to the village or was captured and brought back by force. Kimimaro was a dead man a while ago. The rest of the former Sound Five either joined him in the afterlife or Satsuki in Konoha captivity.

Kabuto could guess who was the likeliest culprit for Satsuki's failed arrival. Not for the first or last time, he felt a very seething disdain for Naruto Uzumaki. A sentiment no doubt shared a thousandfold by his master. Not sweeping him from the board was continuously becoming a dangerous thorn in their side.

_I should have gotten rid of him when I had the chance._

"We are leaving, Kabuto," Lord Orochimaru spoke, his hand unclenched and voice carefully neutral. "This place has outlived its usefulness. Make the necessary preparations."

 _All who are of no further use are to be disposed of,_ He remembered quite vividly what that entailed the first time Kabuto, and he left a hideout behind. A most bloody initial execution of the order, but the process of elimination had become as easy as breathing for him by this point.

"... Of course, sir," Leaving his master to his private considerations of the future, Kabuto went about promptly ensuring the execution of the command. Would he abandon all notions of capturing the Uchiha? He found it unlikely, and though they'd just bought themselves a few years, Kabuto knew there were other forces far more terrible than just Konoha to deal with eventually...

* * *

"So, Orochimaru has once again failed to acquire his long-sought-after Sharingan eye?"

"It would appear so, no doubt he's fuming in whatever hole he's slithered into, hehe," The white half of Zetsu spoke, taking no small amount of understandable joy at their former associate's failure. "That works out just fine for us, don't you think?"

" **Only if you're a fool with no grasp of the bigger picture,** " The other, black Zetsu, quite expectedly grumbled, ever critical. " **Satsuki Uchiha's lust for power could have made her useful to the Akatsuki, now she's back in Konoha's hands.** "

"You're both correct in your assertions," He drawled from the shadows, hidden in a place known to few and visited in person by even fewer. "Orochimaru's every setback is a boon for us, yet, Konoha will no doubt use Satsuki's recovery to bend the girl to their foolish ideology. However, I believe things will work out for us either way."

" **You sound so sure of that.** "

"I am. Either Satsuki sees the error of her ways and bends to the Will of Fire, suffocating her true potential. Thus becoming a dull blade to be used by our enemies and worthless to our purposes regardless. However, hatred is not so easy to snuff out from an Uchiha," The man's sole visible Sharingan activated, glinting from the darkness. "Nor is the pursuit of power at all other costs. Who better than I to know this for a fact?"


	2. Chapter 2

It was a commonly held, though not quite a universally shared feeling, that shinobi despised hospitals. Kakashi and most of his generation certainly did. Experiencing the full brunt of war before many of them even hit puberty left a lingering, ill-feeling towards such places. Not always, but frequently enough in their day, when someone ended up in the hospital, they were already dead, close to it or maimed enough for their shinobi careers to be over. Even over a decade after the Third Great Shinobi War, Kakashi couldn't shake such thoughts or antipathy towards the place despite its crucial role in the betterment and saving of lives.

The general situation didn't help improve his mood whatsoever. Some, like Lee, Shikamaru Nara, and Kiba Inuzuka, managed to get through their battles with lesser injuries. Neji Hyuga and Choji Akimichi, on the other hand, were already several hours into their respective surgeries, dicey medical procedures conducted by ladies Tsunade and Shizune personally. Kakashi knew Choza and Guy for over half his life by that point. Guy already went through so much with Lee. He didn't want either man to suffer through losing their kids.

Still, as he stood back pressed in a hallway, arms crossed in a manner that was far too outwardly relaxed to what he was actually feeling, Kakashi found himself in a better and worse position than either man. Naruto would recover from his wounds in short order. The creature inside him and his Uzumaki lineage would see to that. He would most likely be up and about by tomorrow morning, making the staff's lives miserable with demands for ramen and early release. Imagining it almost brightened his mood.

_Satsuki, on the other hand..._

"...Kakashi-sensei?"

His musing interrupted, Kakashi turned toward's the voice he recognized so well. He wasn't in the least surprised to find Sakura already there, barely an hour since they'd returned to the village. Or by her appearance. The heavy bags under her eyes betrayed the recent, sleepless night. There was painful desperation in them and helplessness that made him hate this whole mess all the more. Sakura was the first to witness her teammates... Escalation in the rivalry.

"Sakura," He replied, knowing now wasn't the time to play the relaxed teacher angle. She walked up to him, tentatively, lip quivering, just a frightened teenager caught up in other's stupidity and selfishness.

Sensei..." She said, quiet as a mouse with trembling lips and fresh tears threatening to fall at any moment. "Please... Tell me they're alright...?"

Kakashi looked at her for a moment, weighing what to say. Sakura was an intelligent girl, easily the smartest of his three students. She likely knew or instinctively understood that Satsuki's actions were a serious breach of the law. After the events of the past few days, Kakashi didn't have the heart to burden her more than she already was.

Instead, he smiled with a confidence he didn't quite have at the time, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Nothing, our medical ninja can't solve. I doubt they'll even need assistance from Lady Tsunade."

She stared at him for a moment, taking his words in, stunned. Then, Sakura's shoulders relaxed, a massive weight pushed off of them. A single shaky breath of relief came out of her, and the tears stayed unshed.

"... Thank goodness..." She laughed, settling down on one of the many empty chairs lining the hallway. Seeing her smile at the news made Kakashi even more thankful that everything Naruto and Satsuki made it back, despite what might come for the latter in the coming days and weeks.

Sakura and Kakashi, for a while anyway, passed the time talking about what happened. He couldn't tell her much and chose to exclude some highly likely suspicions of his own with what Satsuki tried to pull. Sakura, for her part, revealed she was the last one to see Satsuki out of the village, tearfully begging her not to leave. She told him of Naruto's promise to bring their teammate back. Not that he needed to do that, Kakashi suspected Naruto would've fought to the bitterest end. Not just for their sake, but for his personal reasons.

All of this made a particular fact all the more terrible for him.

He'd taught Satsuki the Chidori as a means of protecting comrades, of strengthening her bond with himself, Team 7, and the rest of Konoha. The fact that she would choose to willingly use it to try and kill anyone from the village, but Naruto of all people. It was no wonder their fight escalated to the point he sensed.

"K-Kakashi..." Rin's dying face and her choked and pained voice came at him like a phantom out of his worst nightmares thousand times that day alone. He was thankful that Sakura was too pre-occupied with her relief to notice his silent, simmering anger. At Satsuki, and at himself for not doing more when he could and should have.

A pair of doctors arrived just as the sun nearly finished setting. Both, thankfully, validated Kakashi's earlier estimate. Satsuki and Naruto were both in no danger, though the head trauma they'd suffered would likely keep them out of commission for another day, at least. Knowing Naruto and his abilities, their estimate was off by half a day, at least. Once the doctor's left, Sakura let out another long, relieved breath.

"You should get some rest," He said, patting her gently on the back. "It's been a hard couple of days. A good night's sleep will do you wonders."

"... Is it that obvious?" She smiled, the gesture only making her bags more noticeable. "Still, maybe I should...?"

"Go home, Sakura," He gently suggested. "The two of those idiots won't be going anywhere. I can personally guarantee you that."

She didn't answer immediately, hesitating, staring at the floor before tracing a weary hand over her neck. "... I guess... I could use some sleep..."

"That's the spirit, trust me, once you're out on some more challenging assignments, you'll appreciate every wink of it."

With that nugget of wisdom, Kakashi bade farewell to his least problematic student and went about visiting the other two. Naruto gently snored as he slept, clutching his pillow closely as a trail of saliva dripped on it. Despite the heavy bandaging around his hands and face, the boy seemed as comfortable as in his own bed. He was smiling still, the look of contentment refusing to leave his face. Kakashi couldn't help but feel the same. Naruto had, as he always did, persevered and turned a highly likely disaster into something every worthwhile shinobi would want: he brought a comrade, a friend, back alive.

"Your parents would be very proud of you, Naruto," Kakashi whispered, wishing not for the first time that Minato-sensei and Kushina were around to see their son in-action. "And very soon, the whole village will be too. I promise you that."

But even as he said those words, Kakashi tasted something bitter from them. He knew Naruto wanted one person's acknowledgment above all others, and what Satsuki would think or do once she awoke was something he couldn't begin to guess. Her room was a ways off from Naruto's, a wise choice. The two of them crossing paths at this point in time could result in anything. It was also guarded by one ANBU Kakashi recognized right away.

"Been a while, hasn't it?" He said to Tenzo, hands in each pocket as the cat-masked colleague of his from the old days turned in Kakashi's direction. "I figured they'd have you out on missions."

"I'd just gotten back from one when Lady Hokage put me here," Tenzo said, a smile in his voice. "Good to see you too, old friend, though, I wish it were under better circumstances..."

"Tell me about it," Kakashi sighed, stopping five feet away from where Tenzo stood. Under ordinary conditions, Satsuki wouldn't be able to take on an ANBU member. But her heightened abilities were a massive question mark and liability. Kakashi could see the wisdom and poetic irony in putting Tenzo of all people as her sentry. His singularly unique abilities, rarer beyond description, had proven the bane of many shinobi.

"Can I see her?"

"One of the few Lady Hokage has cleared for it," He stepped aside, the exposed door looking like the maw of a great beast waiting to swallow him in Kakashi's mind. "She also left a message for me to relay to you, you won't be going out on missions for a while."

"... Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. Thanks for letting me know anyway," The melancholy intensified with every step he made towards the door and only got worse once he stepped inside.

Even in sleep, Satsuki was so unlike Naruto, save for the bandages covering much of her face. Satsuki's looked closer to a corpse than a thirteen-year-old girl, guarded even in slumber, her complexion pale. The damned curse mark just barely visible where the bandages ended around her neck. He stared daggers at it, not for the first time wishing he could rip it out of her.

In the chunin preliminaries, he was proud to see her force of will, her strength of character against Orochimaru's overwhelming, paralyzing power. It gave him hope for Satsuki's future, that she wouldn't so readily allow herself to fall under someone's sway for the promise of easy strength. She had excelled with the Chidori, completing the technique and pushing herself to one limit after another. He even swore he'd gotten to her during their conversation in the tree, helped her see what really mattered.

Looking at her now, however, Kakashi didn't know what to think anymore. Satsuki, without question, tried to kill Naruto. He couldn't come up with anything else pushing his use of the Kyuubi to such a level. It was far and away more powerful than what he'd sensed in the Land of Waves when Satsuki appeared dead. The fact Kakashi found them both unconscious and not a mad, snarling Naruto over her dead body told him they'd stalemated one another. The other power he felt clashing against Naruto's was something else to consider, a sensation staggeringly close to standing next to Orochimaru himself.

Just what did his pawns do to the girl, to the curse mark? Sakura had mentioned how vicious Satsuki became in the Forest of Death. A brutal torturer who toyed with her enemies and enjoyed inflicting misery on them. She could be cold, even to her own teammates, but Kakashi never saw a capacity for cruelty until recent events.

 _Was this power from it what drove her to act this way?_ Kakashi wondered as he stared at Satsuki's sleeping face. _Or is the truth much worse, and I'm just looking for some simple excuse... To make myself feel better..._

"You look like you could use a drink," A voice snapped his attention back to the room. Sure enough, as quiet as a ghost, Jiraiya sat at the window. Smiling in that disarming way of his and shaking a bottle of sake. "Interested?"

Kakashi wasn't one for alcohol, even in the best of moods, but Jiraiya had a point. He could be alone with his thoughts or talk to Obito and Rin at the gravesite, which wasn't much different than the first option.

 _Besides, I doubt he's offering just to offer some company._ With a final, pained glance at Satsuki, Kakashi sighed. "Alright."

"Great, meet you on the roof."

"The roof...?"

"Of course! "If the folks working here can come up for a smoke, then the visitors can use it for a drink!"

Before he could argue the point further, Jiraiya vanished from sight. Kakashi wasn't certain Lady Tsunade would like that particular train of thought, and her fellow Sannin was likely counting on that.

_Well, they won't have to waste much time looking for me this way._

And so, both shinobi found themselves drinking and talking for the next half an hour, Jiraiya doing all of the former and Kakashi most of the latter. The jonin didn't so much as sip the first cup, lazily holding it between his fingers as he recounted everything he knew. He began with the conversation with Satsuki that failed, Sakura's attempt to stop her, the recovery team's efforts, the clash of power he'd sensed, and finally, Naruto's success.

Though his cheeks were just a tad bit red, Jiraiya's attention was absolute the whole way through, and his pride at the ending unmistakable.

"That kid," Jiraiya shook his head, leaning against the nearby railing as he gently spun his cup. "He just never stops surprising you, does he?"

"Evidently not."

"Looks like what Sarutobi-sensei said was true, these coming generations, they really are getting better than us old failures..."

While Kakashi wouldn't classify himself as old, being nearly half Jiraiya's age, a failure? That was hard to dispute, perhaps even for the toad hermit standing just a few feet away. They'd both lost teachers and teammates. It was even known Jiraiya and Orochimaru had a battle in the forests of the Fire Country, not too dissimilar from Naruto and Satsuki. A very, very small part of Kakashi wondered if he envied Minato's son for succeeding where he failed.

 _Or are you just trying to excuse yourself...?_ Kakashi felt the mean little voice in his head again, and the sake became even more tempting.

"Hey," Suddenly, Jiraiya was next to him, sobered up and placing a hand on Kakashi's shoulder. "You did everything you could for the girl."

"Can't say I fully agree with that..."

"Then don't," He said, as though it was the easiest thing in the world. "If you feel guilt over it, use it to your advantage. You've been given a rare second chance, Kakashi. If I had a ryo for every shinobi, who wanted one just like it... I still wouldn't be able to pay off Tsunade's gambling debts. But I'd get damn close!"

Despite himself, Kakashi found the strength to laugh before falling quiet again. In all the possibilities he'd run through his head once Lady Hokage told him what happened, a second chance wasn't one of them. He always feared the worst, that they'd kill each other, or one would live and the other gone to the hands of a lunatic.

"A second chance, it sounds nice, but..."

But?"

He let out a shaky breath. "That depends on Satsuki. This back and forth of her pulling away and us reaching out, it's not going to fly anymore. When she wakes up, I'll need to talk with her, to know what I'll be dealing with."

"She's in the dog house no matter what," Jiraiya replied, sitting down across from him. "My estimate? A suspension of duty for a year, constant surveillance for longer, and she can forget about a promotion any time soon. She should count herself lucky for that too. Back in our day, shinobi who defected got far, far worse."

Kakashi knew that well enough too. _If Satsuki wasn't the last Uchiha, and if Lady Tsunade wasn't so positively predisposed towards Naruto..._

"Not that I think the girl cares about any of that stuff," Jiraiya's tone suddenly turned grim as he placed the sake bottle aside, giving Kakashi a knowing look. "Indeed, what else she cares about all besides killing Itachi is most in question now."

"... That's what worries me most," Kakashi felt a cold dread wash over him, staring at the sake cup as though it would somehow give him the answer. "That I'll ask her why she tried it and find... Not the slightest ounce of remorse or guilt when she answers. It may have been the curse mark strengthening her worst impulses..."

"Maybe this, maybe that, you'll know soon enough. I'm sure the little pillow humper below us'll talk your ear off about it either way."

Jiraiya laughed while Kakashi managed a short chuckle.

"Good grief," The Sannin shook his head, reaching for the sake bottle once more. "He's gonna be insufferable after this. His ego was bad enough before this. Not that he's beaten the girl... " He downed the newest cup and immediately refilled it. "I'll have to knock him down a few pegs."

 _Here it is,_ Kakashi knew at once they were about to reach the real heart of the matter. "You'll continue mentoring him?"

"For the next few years. Recently, I've acquired some new information about the group after Naruto, the Akatsuki," Kakashi's eye narrowed at the memory of Itachi and that genjutsu of his, the thought of him having more partners was enough to make the sake more desirable. "S-class criminals and scum of the lowest order, one and all, a mercenary group paid for the highest bidder. Naruto's safe for now, but it's only a matter of time until they come after him. I have to prepare him for that."

"And Orochimaru?"

"Probably fuming in whatever sinkhole he's slithered off to," Jiraiya couldn't resist smiling at that. "My contacts have told me his new body will last just about 3 or 4 years. He won't dare poke the village for a while but make no mistake, the next time he comes for the Uchiha girl, all bets are off."

 _And when the Akatsuki make their move, no matter what, Satsuki will pursue her brother. We'll have to get rid of him sooner or later._ With a long, suffering breath, Kakashi could imagine the storm that was just beginning to approach.

"I wish Minato-sensei were still here..."

"Don't we all," Jiraiya wistfully. "But he's not, and he wouldn't want us to beat ourselves up over what we can or can't do in his absence."

"A shinobi endures..." Kakashi remembered, smiling under his mask.

"That we do, although," A cheeky grin graced the older man's features. "He never said we have to do it entirely sober."

For the third time, the Sannin managed to get a laugh out of him. More impressively, he'd convinced Kakashi to taste some of the sake.

"To Minato-sensei then," He began slipping his mask off, playing it cool while the toad sage's surprise made him choke on the booze.

**Author's Note:**

> So ends the first of a handful of chapters I'm planning to write for this AU of mine. The idea of a female Sasuke or Naruto appealed to me, adding in more romantic elements to what is already a very emotionally charged relationship in the series proper. Sadly, there aren't many good fics about that floating around, and I hope mine makes a small contribution to fixing that problem.


End file.
